Pruning shears and pruning saws are handheld tools commonly used in the pruning of plants and trees. Pruning shears, also called hand pruners or secateurs, are specialized scissors used for cutting small limbs and branches. Pruning saws are specialized saws designed for cutting branches that are too dense for pruning shears.
Typically pruning shears can be used to cut plant limbs up to two centimeters without damaging the plants, but pruning saws should be used to cut limbs greater than two centimeters thick to prevent plant damage. Attempting to cut limbs and branches of too large a diameter with pruning shears tends to result in crushing injury to the plant tissue around the cut. Tissue damaged caused by this crushing of pruning shears slows the rate at which cuts can callous and heal, and can introduce and encourage plant pathogens. In addition, a poorly-made cut may eventual result in branch dieback. Each cut must be clean, and must be made in such a way as to do as little unnecessary damage to the plant as possible. Seldom, can pruning tasks be appropriately accomplished using just a pruning shear.
The current practice for the pruning of most woody plants by hand demands the use of both a pruning shear and a small pruning saw. Consequently, users are constantly switching between a pruning shear and a pruning saw. Since a typical pruning session may involve thousands of cuts, often made by a user positioned atop a ladder, transferring between a pruning shear and a pruning saw consumes a significant amount of time and requires the user to carry, stow and manipulate both hand tools.
The pruning tool of this invention incorporates the functions of a pruning shear and a pruning saw into a single handheld tool. The pruning tool of this invention allows the user to quickly transition from clipping limbs using the tool as a pruning shear to cutting limbs using the tool as a pruning saw. The pruning tool takes the form of a conventional pruning shear that incorporates a folding saw blade into one of the handles of the shear. The saw blade is pivotally deploys from a stowed position within the handle to an extended operational position. In certain embodiments, the saw blade is deployed from the forward end of the handle and in other embodiments, the saw blade deploys from the aft end of the handle.
The pruning tool of this invention reduce the time and effort required to prune a particular plant, tree or shrub. The user can quickly, easily and safely transition between pruning functions. Consequently, the pruning tool eases the stress and physical effort in the pruning process. In addition, combining the functions of a pruning shear and pruning saw into a single hand tool encourages the users to properly utilize the tool for a clean cut, as opposed to, attempting to cut a branch that is too large in diameter to shear through resulting in damage and die back.
The above described features and advantages, as well as others, will become more readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art by reference to the following detailed description and accompanying drawings.